Tenants and Residents Association

TRA ACTIVITIES

Your TRA commitee is made up of your friends and neighbours, but what have we been up to?

Monthly Meetings We meet on the second Wednesday of each month. We usually have at leastcouncillorone of our councillors present as well as our Camden Council Estate Officer and invited guests. Recent meetings have covered topics which affect our estate such as HS2, the upgrading of kitchens on Ainsworth Way and the refurbishment of the boiler house.

Supporting Residents We work with Camden Council to ensure they deliver the best possible service for us. We arrange regular walkabouts around the estate to identify areas of concern and we look at issues that affect us all such as recycling, CCTV, repairs and cleaning

Raising £2mn for our Park A team from the TRA worked with other residents to put together an application for funds to the Heritage Lottery Fund for money for our park. Work has now started to restore the park to its former glory. Read more here

HS2 The current plans for the new train line to Birmingham will have a huge effect on our estate. We have successfully petitioned the council to raise our concerns and we are linking up with other local campaigns to try to protect our estate from disruption.

Food Coop TRA comittee members got together with fellow residents to set up and run a non-profit food coop on the estate. The coop provides organic fruit and veg at a fraction of the cost of super markets right here on the estate. To date over 100 residents have taken advantage of this and each week you can pop along to the Tenants Hall on a Saturday morning to get involved. (There is often tea and cake on offer too.) Find out more here

Filming on the estateBecause of our unique architecture, we get many requests from filmmakers to use Rowley Way. We vet film scripts to make sure the estate is not portrayed in a negative way. Prospective film makers don’t always tell us the whole truth, but we do our best.

ActivitiesSome members are very interested in getting activities organised for fellow residents (see timetable for more details). In addition to getting the table tennis club, yoga and film club started, we also organise the following:

Annual fireworks display: With a party in the Tenants Hall and fireworks off the roof this event regularly attracts 300+ residents.

New surface for the Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA): We worked with Arsenal football club and other organisations to have the pitch re-surfaced with state of the art astroturf. The TRA also contributed money towards the costs to help make this happen.

Football Training: We work with Arsenal to ensure that the Kickz sessions continue. We also contacted Camden and persuaded them to start the very popular Wednesday training sessions for younger children and requested a woman coach. Initially Camden asked the TRA to contribute towards the costs but they have gone so well that Camden have just announced that they will continue running these sessions indefinitely at no cost to the TRA.

Dance/Film Project Last year the TRA helped artists from the Royal Academy of Arts to set up a dance and film project for residents. Two groups were set up, one of adults and one children, and two wonderful films were made. See the films now on the estate website www.alexandraandainsworth.org/news.html

Website and newsletterThe TRA have designed and built an estate website which we keep updated so this is the best place to find out what’s going on. We also design and print a newsletter that gets delivered to all residents.

WE WANT YOU FOR THE TRA

The TRA on the estate is very well attended and active but we always welcome new members! You are welcome to come along to any meeting to observe and participate. These are the second Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm in the Tenants Hall. Just turn up!

We have one of the most active and effective TRAs in the whole of the UK. In addition to representing the interests of our residents to the council, we have set up this website, produce a newsletter, set up classes and events in the Tenants Hall, organise the annual fireworks party and much more. TRA members recently secured funding to re-surface the football pitch. Other TRA members are very involved in the bid to get funding to rejuvenate our park. Others are involved in running the table tennis club, the yoga class, the residents run Food Cooperative. The more people involved the better, and you don’t need to actually join the TRA to get involved. What do you want to see happen on the estate? All you need to do is join us to make our estate an even better place to live! For Parents The more people who get involved with the TRA the better. For this reason the TRA will pay for babysitting for those parents/guardians who are on the TRA and need it in order to attend meetings.

TRA activities and initiatives in pics

Annual fireworks display

Arts and crafts workshop for children

Beehives

Picnic in the Parks

Film Club

Documentary film

Yoga class

Football

Annual Dawn Chorus Walk

Annual General Meeting

On Wednesday May 14th 2014 we had a really good turn out at the last TRA meeting with lots of new residents attending. Our meetings are among the best attended of any TRA in Camden which is great for all of the work residents do on the estate, both through the TRA but also through the other activities and groups people have set up.We discussed the upcoming re-vamp of our wonderful park, HS2, all of the things going on in the Tenants Hall and announced our new activities coordinator who will be organising events and activities in the park. Watch this space for the latest info.
June 2014

Do I have to be a TRA member to be involved?

No. Currently we have various working groups including -
The Heating Working Group which has been working with the Council to ensure that any new heating system for the estate is what residents want;
The Open Space (Park) Working Group which has been putting together a bid for £1.4 million to Heritage Lottery to re-vampour park;
The Tenants Hall Working Group which has been working hard to get activities running in our Tenants Hall;
The Filming Working Group which looks over applications to film on the estate to make sure that programmes made here are positive.
For more info us at info@alexandraandainsworth.org.

For Parents

The more people who get involved with the TRA the better. For this reason the TRA will pay for babysitting for those parents/guardians who are on the TRA and need it in order to attend meetings.